He Faced Himself
by JumpingTheMoon
Summary: I guess we'd never even considered the possibility that the leader would be next. I mean, why would we? NOTE: Likely to be abandoned or rewritten at some point.


**He Faced Himself**

A Persona 4 Fanfic

Chapter One: Going In

* * *

_Author's Note_: This was literally typed up over an unknown time period in my Digital Communications class. So, I apologize profusely if it isn't up to my usual amazing quality. Also, my first crack at a Persona fic, it's short, etc etc. More will hopefully be coming. Sometime. Also, don't ask me when in the game this happens to take place, I'm probably violating canon. Whatever. I just always wondered how Souji's shadow, dungeon, etc, would be, given what most people convey his personality as.

* * *

I guess we'd never even considered the possibility that the leader would be next. I mean, why would we? Not only did he not fit the pattern of victims, but even if he had… the guy seemed like he'd just beat up the killer and arrest him on his own if it came to that, you know?

Somehow, we… I figured he was invincible. When we went into the TV world, the shadows would sometimes be too much and one of us would go down, sometimes pretty bad, but never Seta. He'd always be the last one standing in any fight, and always give us a helping hand when we needed it.

So what were we going to do after he'd gone missing? Seta would never skip school, and he didn't answer his cell phone. Of course, the biggest clue we'd had was when a boy with his gray hair showed up on the Midnight Channel five days ago. Seta didn't seem to think it was a big deal; maybe his plan really was to confront the killer face to face. If that happened, I guess he finally did lose a fight.

"Okay, the first thing we need to do is chose a new leader for this mission," Chie's voice brought me back to reality; the Junes food court, about as real as it got out here. The team was all gathered around, and everyone looked about as grim as I felt. There was a big rainstorm coming tomorrow, and after that the forecasts called for a solid three days of fog. That meant that our leader was in serious trouble and we were going in.

Everyone was affected by his kidnapping, but Rise-chan and Teddy were the most obvious examples. Both of them were generally pretty outgoing people, and they'd both gotten really attached to him… heh. I mean more than the rest of us. Even the school was filled with his name now, and it seemed like all anyone could talk about. The weirdest thing, though, was that Naoto, as manly as she tried to be, looked a bit puffy-eyed as well. "I think it should be Naoto," Yukiko said, with most of her usual shy persona gone.

"M-me?" The young detective blinked, looking up from the piece of ground she had been intently examining. It wasn't a big shock. I mean, let's look at the candidates here; Chie's tactical mind isn't _quite_ up to Seta's example, although she does have a mean kick… and a good critical hit rate, if you know what I mean… Yukiko is healing and support all the way, you can't lead from behind… Teddie and Rise are totally out of sorts, and even if they weren't, I don't think I'd like them planning my battles for me… Kanji's like Chie, good heart, great fighter, bad temper. Plus… you know. He might try to like bond to me. In a leader-follower relationship, of course. That leaves me and Naoto.

I'm really more cut out for middle management than the top spot. Ha, that's always what my dad said, too. Really sucks I have to end up proving him right.

Plus she's got experience with this sort of stuff. Seta asked her for advice more than anyone else. "Maybe Hanamura-sempai would be a better choice, he was… his right hand man…" She glanced over at me and I shook my head, trying to muster up a smile for her. I'd avoided leadership like the plague, and with good reason. The only time I'd shown some initiative had gotten me and the leader thrown into jail for waving around those weapons; ok, yeah, when it comes to intelligence I probably don't think through certain things enough.

"You're the best choice," I replied, my voice almost managing casual smoothness.

Naoto didn't want to look indecisive, and so after another moment she nodded. "Very well. We know what we have to do, so all that's left is to go into the TV and locate Souji-sempai. I think it should be today, considering tomorrow is Sunday and we can rest after we've rescued him." Everyone nodded.

"Who're you taking in?" Chie asked. Generally, for the TV world dungeons we have to go through before actually saving someone, we chose a four-man team including Souji. Everyone not on the team would hang outside with Rise-chan and make sure nothing attacked her. I glanced at Kanji, trying not to glower as I remembered going through his particular dungeon. It was… not good.

Teddie looked up for the first time, and said, "Naoto-chan, let me come! I'll do whatever it takes to save Sensei!" The detective knew how attached the little guy had become to Souji… plus, it was really hard for girls to resist his human form and its skillful puppy eyes. I wish I knew how to do it that good.

She nodded. "Very well. Hanamura-sempai, would you like to come along as well?" I resisted the urge to wisecrack. Would I _like_ to rescue my best friend from certain death? Why, sure. That would be lovely.

"Wouldn't miss it for the world," I assured her with a wink, still trying to keep a bit of lightness around us. Hey, I even got a crack of a smile from her for a few moments before her face returned to stone.

Everyone wanted to go, so Naoto had to think about the last slot carefully. I could see the gears whirling in her head; Teddie's Ice, I'm Wind, she's Dark, Light, Almighty and Physical, so… "Yukiko-sempai, would you come along?"

Yuki-chan didn't look very surprised; she nodded grimly. Chie looked worried about her, and around here was where I'd normally chip in with some prince and princess jokes, but the routine wouldn't go down so well today.

We'd been having much smoother landings in the TV world with Teddie to help, but today I fell right on my face, followed by getting a person-sized weight smashed into my back a second later. Great, I'd ended up on the bottom of a dogpile with Yuki-chan, Naoto-san and Rise-chan the one time I _wouldn't_ enjoy it. Thanks a million, Ted.

I made sure to sound off as the bear quietly appeared, standing next to the other pile that held the rest of our brave investigation team. From the complaints wafting over here, Kanji must have landed on the bottom. Oh, well, at least he was tough and he could take it.

"Sorry," Teddie said, rubbing the back of his bear-suit's head in apology. "It's hard to focus. Um. So, everyone, on your feet! Let's go save him!"

Once everyone was untangled, Rise-chan got to work, summoning her Persona with a flash. I have no clue how anything in this world works, much less how radar-face manages to sense people all over this foggy world, but I'm just glad it helps us. Today, though, Rise wasn't in top form either, and her Persona showed that, the beeping of the radar not keeping to any particular rhythm as she desperately extended her mind to search.

"Just look for the blip surrounded by girl shadows, he'll be easy to find," I piped up, still trying to lighten up the mood a bit. The gang was a bit of a tough crowd today, though, and I didn't get a chuckle.

"I'm…" Rise had a tendency to talk, to herself and her Persona, as well as us, while she was doing her remote viewing radar magic thing. "He's… I'm not sure but I sense something that could be…. Wait! I've got him! That way!" He pointed off into the foggy distance; even with our glasses we couldn't see more than, I'd say, around a hundred meters off. The walkways and catwalks of this room branched off into dozens of routes, all vanishing at some point into the fog, and giving us no clue where we were going.

So, of course, we got moving right away. We'd never encountered Shadows in the 'hub' part of the TV world, but nobody was looking to be caught off guard, tension high as we walked through a drug addict's nightmare.

The landscape around us slowly started to shift and morph, from a yellow studio with camera equipment, stages, all that, to a field of green, around a big impressive black lattice wall surrounding a towering white building. As we got closer I could read a big sign over the entrance to the building. There was a blacked out name, followed by "**ACADEMY INSTITUTE OF HIGHER LEARNING**". "A school?" Naoto said as we pulled up to this place's gates, which were open.

"Nice name," Chie said. 'Academy Institute of Higher Learning' was both redundant and sounded like a kid trying to come up with a fancy school's name.

"This must be Souji sempai's… dungeon," Kanji said, looking around. "All the windows in the building are black. I don't see any lights." There wasn't a single sign that anything was inside, but I just had a feeling we were going to meet a bunch of Shadows. They always flocked to the victims.

Rise did another, close range scan, her Persona staring up at the towering school. It didn't take her long to cry out, "Thirteenth! Sempai is on the thirteenth floor! He's… he's in trouble!" The air suddenly got a lot thinner. "Everyone, hurry! I'll keep monitoring him…" And she vanished into her own little world.

Swallowing a sense of dread, I followed Naoto and the others into the school, pulling my kunai from my jacket and squeezing the grips, occasionally juggling one. It might seem like a pretty stupid thing to do with a sharp object, but I'd gotten so much practice wielding them that I never got hurt. Hey, it helps me relax, so I figure it's ok. Everyone has their nervous habits.

For instance, as Naoto looked over the lobby, she was messing with the chamber of her revolver. Otherwise, our ace detective was looking calm and composed, probably for our benefit. Yukiko got really quiet, more than usual, when we entered someone's dungeon. Well, we _were_ about to start fighting monsters. Teddie would usually chime in, trying to cheer her up with his amazingly bad bear jokes, but today he wasn't in much of a mood for it.

The only good thing I could see coming out of this was getting to see Seta as a normal human being for once. Hey, if you rescue a total badass, what does that make _you_?

The welcoming committee decided to show up just as we'd figured the lobby was empty. These shadows looked like a kid's really crappy drawing of a school student, a deformed humanoid who was little more than a dark stick figure, wrapped in our school's black uniform and wearing a vaguely creepy mask. Honestly, though I was creeped out, they didn't look like they'd give us much trouble. "I got this!"

I ran up to the nearest one and gave it a badass slice with the kunai, just like I'd seen in _Honor of the Ninja VI_. The blade got pretty much no resistance and I cut the shadow in half, watching the halves dissolve into black mist. By now, I guess I was used to that sort of weird stuff.

Before I could say something suitably cocky, something smashed me in the left side and sent me flying. I landed pretty hard on the tough marble floor, sliding and letting go of my kunai by accident. Damn, that hurt about as bad as any attack I'd been hit with before! And I'd been there pretty much every step of the way on this adventure, lucky me.

By the time I had my wits together, I noticed Yukiko-san kneeling over me, not an unwelcome sight at all, and heard gunfire. The guys must not have taken long to polish off the stick bastards, for they were soon at my side, too. "I'm fine," I told them all, sitting up against the wall and letting out a sigh. "What happened?"

Rise's voice penetrated my head like an arrow. "They hit you with Zio, sempai." Ah. Somewhere, God had decided that my ultimate weakness was going to be electricity. Get it, like a bird, since my Persona uses Wind? Har har.

"Great." Well luckily I'm no stranger to humiliation so I just picked myself up and got ready to rock again. Maybe hanging back and letting the others do most of the work wouldn't be so bad. For a while.


End file.
